I REFER to the letter “Wan Zainun was helped all the way” (NST, Jan 18) by George Thomas, executive director of Malaysian Association for the Blind, written in reply to the letter by Bernard Marbeck about blind and deaf Wan Zainun Wan Mohamad and the MAB (”Association could have done more” — NST, Jan 15).

Thomas mentions that Wan Zainun was not “chased out of the hostel” (that is the MAB Rotary Hostel in Petaling Jaya which was located next to the Tun Hussein Eye Hospital).

Bernard Marbeck never mentioned this but since Thomas has brought up this matter, I would like to set the record right.

Here is a summary of what happened to Wan Zainun based on documentation in the possession of the six affected blind persons:

- Oct 3, 1997: MAB notified all the tenants of the MAB Rotary Hostel to vacate the premises by Dec 31, 1997. The date was subsequently changed as no suitable alternative accommodation could be found.

- Feb 13, 1998: MAB notified the tenants that they had to vacate the premises by March 15, 1998 and seek their own alternative accommodation.

- March 15, 1998: Water and electricity to the hostel was cut.

- March 15, 1998: I moved into a single-storey terrace house in Section 14 purchased for me by my mother. I offered the accommodation rent-free to five of the blind girls affected whom I regarded as friends in trouble.

- July 1998: A proposal to purchase low-cost PKNS flats in Section 20 of Shah Alam arose. These low-cost flats had to be purchased by the six of us with our own money.

- Feb 3, 1999: MAB required us to pay lawyer’s fees and other incidentals in order to obtain the sales and purchase agreement. We paid the sum demanded.

- June 25, 1999: Wan Zainun and I managed to pay the sum in full; the other four decided to pay the cost in instalments.

- July 19, 1999: The keys to the flats were given to us after we had settled all the amount demanded.

We vacated the hostel on March 15, 1998 but the keys to the flats were given to us only between June 19 and 25, 1999. Therefore, Thomas’ statement that “they did not leave the hostel until after they had received the keys to their new flats” is incorrect.

Note that although two of us had settled all our payments by June 25, 1999 so that the S&P could be obtained on Feb 3, 1999, we had to wait until Jan 4 this year for the deed of assignment to our flats to be signed.

According to PKNS records, MAB remained the owner of those flats all that time even though the six of us had been required to pay for legal fees and other expenses. Repeated phone calls by us to have this matter rectified were ignored.

Letters from lawyers were ignored. Letters to the president and the association in Malay, English and Braille were ignored. It was only when this matter was brought to the attention of Datuk Michael Chong of the MCA Complaints Bureau on June 28, 2006 that there was some reaction. And even then it required a personal visit from Chong to MAB for this matter to get moving. Meanwhile, the remaining four had settled their loans.

- Sept 30, 2006: Necessary forms submitted to PKNS.

- Aug 1, 2007: Matter stalled again. PKNS required a resolution from MAB about the transfer but this was delayed.

Since we could not get an answer from MAB, one of us phoned PKNS to find out the cause of the delay. She was told that letters requested and addressed to MAB had gone unanswered.

- Dec 20, 2007: This matter was reported in the press. Then the executive director reacted.

- Jan 4, 2008: A lawyer from PKNS visited us in the house in Petaling Jaya and George Thomas in his office in Kuala Lumpur later in the day to have the deeds executed.

The delay of nine years (short of five months) is something of a record. I wonder whether the Malaysia Book of Records will take note. So I don’t blame Bernard Marbeck for not going to MAB for clarification.

While we are on the subject of Wan Zainun, I would like to state here that besides offers of help from sympathetic Malaysians, we have also received threatening calls at night about someone’s “image being damaged” and that police reports would be lodged against Wan Zainun and me.

It appears that we disabled are not allowed to stand up for our own rights.

LEONG TAK KEONG, Petaling Jaya

Source: NST – February 4, 2008